BeaconLBS announced a collaboration with MagnaCare of Garden City, N.Y., last month. The press release issued by the two companies stated that MagnaCare would use the “BeaconLBS Physician Decision Support (PDS) solution with its network of physician and laboratory providers.” MagnaCare describes itself as a company serving “Taft-Hartley funds, TPAs, carriers, and worker’s compensation and no-fault payers in the New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut tri-state area,” Paul Conlin, President, BeaconLBS said, adding, “We look forward to working with MagnaCare’s extensive network of providers and its members to improve the quality and affordability of advanced laboratory testing.”
MORE ON: BeaconLBS
BeaconLBS is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Laboratory Corporation of America. It has been closely watched by many clinical lab executives and pathologists since its first contract with UnitedHealthcare for the insurer’s commercial lives in Florida, announced in 2014. In the MagnaCare press release, BeaconLBS says it now serves eight million lives in all 50 states. It also said that “physicians who use the BeaconLBS PDS platform have improved test referrals to high quality labs by up to 28%, improved test selection quality by up to 61%, and lowered patient out-of-pocket costs by up to 59%.”
MED TECH SHORTAGE ENDS OUTPATIENT LAB SERVICES
Concerns about the shortage of skilled medical technologists continue to be an issue in both the United States and Canada. In St. Marys, Ontario, Canada, the Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance announced it would close the community [outreach] laboratory services at St. Marys Memorial Hospital. The reason is recent lab staff retirements and a shortage of med techs in the province. Inpatient lab testing will continue at the hospital, but outpatients in St. Marys will need to visit independent lab companies for their clinical lab tests.
TRANSITIONS
- Washington University School of Medicine named Richard J. Cote, MD, as its new head of the Department of Pathology and Immunology, starting May 1. Cote was at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and has previously held positions at USC/Norris Cancer Center, Cornell University Medical College, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
That’s all the insider intelligence for this report.
Look for the next briefing on Monday, April 29, 2019.
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…clearance by the FDA of a smartphone-based urinalysis test kit for prescription home use that matches the quality of clinical laboratory tests. The Dip.io urinalysis test system was developed by Healthy.io, of Tel Aviv, Israel.
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